


Unidentified Found Object

by moonlit_wings



Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Gen, Minor Canonical Character(s), Snow Globe, Strange Magic Week 2016, statue, statue mistaken for frozen person really is an inanimate statue, tiny people in jars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 07:09:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7791760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlit_wings/pseuds/moonlit_wings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Human things seem to show up in the Strange Magic world once in a while – buttons, bottle caps, nails. One day, Pare discovers a snow globe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unidentified Found Object

**Author's Note:**

> _Strange Magic Week_ is a tumblr event, which this year lasts from Monday August 15th to Sunday August 21st. The challenges/prompts are as follows:
> 
> 1\. Fairy Tale of creator's choice AU
> 
> 2\. Wedding/Arranged Marriage
> 
> 3\. Tiny People in Jars
> 
> 4\. Dark Fantasy AU
> 
> 5\. Role Reversal
> 
> 6\. Babies/Next Generation
> 
> 7\. SciFi AU
> 
> Because of how creeped out characters are by the snow globe, this may count as Dark Fantasy as well as Tiny People In Jars. This particular story also applies for the bonus challenge to feature "Minor Characters."

The bank of the North River was only sparsely populated, making it an excellent place to let a lizard run loose. Pare rode on Lizzie's shoulders as the giant reptile galloped and frolicked. She seemed to love the riverbank, with its warm stones and open spaces and all the low-buzzing mosquitoes she could catch.

Lizzie settled on a particularly wide, flat rock and closed her eyes. Pare dismounted to stretch his legs.

The sparkle of sunlight on water was almost hypnotic. Pare walked slowly around the edge of Lizzie's basking rock, appreciating the view of the wide river on one side and wider field of flowers on the other.

There was a glint of light where he hadn't expected it. The large elf lowered himself over the side of the rock, hanging by his fingertips for a moment, and went to investigate. He wasn't concerned about danger. Lizzie was just a shout away, and there hadn't been enough rain this summer to make the river a flood risk.

Whatever had caught the light was mostly round and about twice Pare's height, and splotched with mud.

He got close enough to make out a shape inside of it.

Pare gasped in horror.

He had never seen the cobweb trap in which the Bog King had imprisoned the Sugar Plum Fairy, but Sunny had described it to everyone. Under the mud was a clear orb, much like that one, with a woman frozen inside of it.

"Ma'am? Can you hear me?"

She didn't respond. She didn't move. Her eyes were vacant, her mouth in a small smile.

She was long-limbed, like every other fairy Pare had ever seen, but her wings were oddly stubby and rounded and … glittery? Her arms were outstretched, and she balanced on one toe, the other leg reaching behind her. Her purple dress flared as though she'd been paralyzed while dancing.

The shell of the trap was scratched and chipped, and the orb seemed to be mounted on a pedestal.

Maybe it was some old goblin hunting trophy, thrown away now that the Dark Forest and Fairy Kingdom were officially allied.

Pare shook off that horrid thought. He knocked tentatively on the sphere.

"Hold on, Ma'am. My name is Pare, and I promise I'll do my best to help you."

He couldn't reach though to pull her free, the way Sunny had described … Could he smash it open? Or would that harm her somehow?

Maybe he could rig up some kind of harness and he and Lizzie could drag the trap back to the village. There had to be someone somewhere who could help. Or maybe he should take her to the Dark Forest? It did look a little like a goblin trap, so maybe someone there would be able to free her.

He set about getting the trap out of the dirt it was partially buried in. Pare got a thick twig from under a nearby bush and started coaxing it under the sphere, hoping to lever it free rather than having to dig. He pulled down on his lever and it snapped in two.

If he had some rope, Lizzie could probably pull it loose. Maybe.

This looked like a bigger job than one elf could handle all alone.

"Lizzie?" Pare called. She sauntered off the rock and nuzzled him. He scratched under her chin. "Somebody's trapped in this thing. Can you guard them for me while I go get help?"

Lizzie put a claw on the trap's pedestal and raised her head proudly.

"Thanks. I'll be back as quick as I can."

* * *

The area swarmed with elves. Within a few hours, they constructed a rough but stable scaffolding and were hoisting the trap out of the mud.

The agitation created a swirl of white chunks inside the orb. Everyone gasped and went still, watching in case this was some sort of magic and the fairy woman was about to awaken. She didn't move.

Once the trap was in the air, a waterproof sheet of tarp was pulled under it to prevent anything else from being sucked into the mud, and a cart, usually used for transporting heavy barrels of fruit preserves, was rolled under the orb.

The ropes were carefully and unevenly lowered, so the pedestal, which had been at a slant when Pare had found the object, sat level on the bottom of the cart. The white chunks floated about once more, and slowly settled around the woman's foot.

A few goblins had been in the village when Pare arrived, and they had joined the rescue party. One tapped their claws against the sphere. There was a _chime_.

"It's glass," they announced. "Whatever this is, it's made of glass."

One of the elves wiping the mud from the orb gasped.

"There's an inscription over here! Look at this!"

Painted in flaked gold on the base was the phrase, _Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy_. Under this, in smaller, capitalized letters, were the more nonsensical words, _NUTCRACKER BALLET_.

"So … we should ask Sugar Plum about it?" Pare guessed.

* * *

"I don't know what the heck this thing is," Plum announced, "but _she's_ a statue. It was sweet of all of you to worry, though. I guess since my name's on it, you can just leave it here."

Forever after, those who visited the Sugar Plum Fairy in her magical workshop avoided looking at the eerie statue, frozen mid-dance step in her glass prison. Unknown to anyone else, Plum covered it with a sheet most of the time – it reminded her a little too much of her own time as a prisoner. But it amused her to see people glance at it and then hastily look away.

**Author's Note:**

> The [Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_f9B4pPtg) really is a dance from the Nutcracker Ballet, but as far as I know the specific snow globe described here is not a real-world object.


End file.
